Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.

BORN WITH A CREATIVE FIRE, FASCINATED WITH POP CULTURE, MOVING BETWEEN MEDIUMS, NATIVE ARTIST NEAL AMBROSE SMITH ASKS BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT CONTEMPORY SOCIETY.

INSPIRED BY COMIC BOOKS AT AN EARLY AGE, BRYAN MOSS KEEPS DRAWING, DRAWING, DRAWING.

FLEEING GUATEMALA FOR THE U.S.

OPENED THE DOOR FOR HECTOR CASTELLANOS LARA TO HAVE A DECADES LONG ARTISTIC CAREER.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

POW WOW!

>>Faith: What themes are important for you to explore in your work?

>>Neal Ambrose Smith: I tend to use a lot of pop and cartoons and TV shows from the seventies.

Stuff that I grew up with.

Comics, mad Magazine is a big one for me.

Star Trek, science fiction is a big thing.

It was a great escape from some of the ordinary of the mundane, thinking about outer space.

Plus you don't get singled out because of your skin tone and you don't get ostracized or that kind of thing.

In outer space.

In outer space, we're supposed to all get along, that kind of thing.

I'll throw in, well, I've got a headdress or I'll say powwow or something like that.

That's kind of cheeky sometimes.

In fact, in a lot of my work, there's a lot more identity things in there, but most people aren't aware of it unless you're from the community.

I remember somebody spoke up and said, this is really good work, but how is it native?

How is it Indian?

And I thought that was really interesting because in this day and age it's still happening.

People have this stereotype or expectation that if you don't have feathers in your work, then it's not native.

Or if there's not pain and suffering or if there's not an Indian that's crying or something, it's not native kind of thing.

Sometimes I'll throw a headdress in just for that reason.

I'll just stick a headdress on whoever.

I'll put a headdress on Alfred E. Newman, I'll stick it on Captain Kirk.

Everybody, headdresses for everybody!

We're all Indians here.

Nobody's left out.

You're all part of the powwow kind of thing.

>>Faith: You use a lot of text in your work actually.

How do you decide what text goes into it?

>>Neal Ambrose Smith: Well, it has to be funny.

That's the first measure.

I mean, if it hits me like a funny bone sideways, I grew up with coyote stories and there's something cheeky about coyote, there's something funny, and most of us are familiar with a coyote and Roadrunner.

Coyotes always falling down and getting banged up or something.

And it's funny, Vaudevillian in a way.

So I think that's kind of what I do in my work is I look for something humorous and then I also look for something that's out of the ordinary, like to talk about politics or the environment or education or whatever.

There's a lot of great things to talk about and that people get really bent out of shape about, and it's like my way or the highway.

And I love to throw a wrench into the conversation to stir it up because we're not going to get anywhere if we're constantly fighting over something that's ridiculous.

We need to coalesce and move forward.

So I use a lot of humor that way.

It's reservation medicine.

We laugh about everything.

If you can't laugh about it, you're just going to poison yourself.

>>Faith: So tell me about this painting, and the name of it is Sam Small Feathers and his Cape at the Fancy Shawl.

>>Neal Ambrose Smith: So Batman is a character that is already an identity crisis, so I thought this was great talking about a person that is in between two worlds or doesn't know where they're supposed to belong because you're on the reservation and reservation life is a certain way and largely within matriarchal society.

And then you step out of that and you're bombarded with white male dominated society, which is incredible.

It's two distinctly different worlds.

We struggle with that a lot, native people.

So I thought this was a really good character for that.

>>Faith: I also noticed that you use a lot of Alice in Wonderland and the white rabbit references.

Can you tell me why you choose to put that in your work?

>>Neal Ambrose Smith: When I started using that character was the explosive me too movement at the beginning of it, and I used that as a way for myself to process some of that information because I myself grew up in a matriarchal family and I have a very strong mother and it's really important to me.

And this stuff that's happening to women explosively coming out is so unbelievable.

I am trying to process it and then hearing about all these important people, these politicians and stuff and all their shenanigans, and it's just like really?

Where are the parents?

>>Faith: This one is called No matter which way You go Powwow, right?

>>Neal Ambrose Smith: Oh, I think the gun situation is serious.

And so every which way you go, pow wow, don't matter where you go, you should pow wow kind of thing.

And a powwow is a great place to go to get along and to see other people and to dance.

If we could just dance together, a lot of problems would be solved.

When I was a kid, when I was this little kid watching my mom in the garage make her drawings and she would take that charcoal and drag it on the paper and I can remember hearing that sound of the charcoal hitting the tooth of the paper and coming down that scratchy grindy and then it would flake off and make powder.

I remember that vividly and I would go, I want to know how to do that.

I want to learn how to do that, make those marks.

I'm just an artist.

That's all I am.

I.

JUST KEEP DRAWING How many comic books do you own?

Okay, let's put it like this, Um.

How many comics do I own?

I own twenty bookshelves of graphic novels.

I think I might fill a library one day.

So I was born in 1981, on the south end of Columbus.

So born and raised.

Now that I reflect back on it, I grew up really poor.

When you say it, it sounds pretty triggering, but actually I learned a lot.

That's how I like figured out how to do art through like a grassroots process.

I signed up for art classes at Schiller Park.

That's when I discovered and understood that I was going to be an artist.

After that, it was more just like drawing, drawing, drawing.

So just nonstop.

Just obsessed with it.

So when I was like ten or eleven, that's when I discovered comic books.

And then that's when it shifted, so that I was just drawing comics all the time.

The current project I just finished up, and that I'm still working on a little bit here and there, is a comic book called "eight fold path."

It's a two-hundred twenty- five-page comic.

The turnaround time for the book was six months.

So it was a team of us about six to eight people just working around the clock on this book.

I'm the beginning and the end of it.

Which means that I approve what goes through and what doesn't, So it's almost as like a director.

The idea of converting a script into a comic book is actually a very difficult process.

You start penciling, we go through this process called thumb nailing, which is where you just literally sketch off the idea, and then after that you go into your official pencil, which is like, where our like, okay this works.

Now let's do the paneling and actually draw it in pencil and make that work.

After that we ink it.

The inking part is kind of like the fun, the jazz of it.

And then after that we scan it in.

Digitally color it.

That'll make this into this "Hitchcockian" like masterpiece comic.

They're like alright we uh we build it while we fly so another project that I worked on that was super awesome, super Epic, a dream come true.

White Castle and Coca Cola called me and was like "would you like To do the art for our one Hundredth anniversary, would you be interested in designing a cup?"

And I was like yeah and then I was like we should do like three cups so it's like a collector thing.

Now I don't know about you guys but I always wanted to design something like this, and even from when I was a kid because what I really have a lot of passion about is actually, like making products cool.

And so we developed a narrative from the beginning, and the Original Billy Ingram, the founder.

It shows like the diner of the first location.

What the first gift card looks like.

So yeah, this is all my narrative, all my storytelling I came up with.

And obviously me there at the end as any great renaissance painter would do, which is to include themselves into the masterpiece.

So yeah, so if you get a chance look for those cups online.

For me lifting up other people within the community through my work I would say it's a very critical part of what I do.

The mural I recently completed was one of, the one and only Hanif.

It's actually on a law firm on Miller and Main.

Hanif is a writer.

Hanif is a famous writer.

Hanif and I went to middle school together.

There's a bit of an age difference, but there's this indirect relationship that we've always had.

With hanif, the cool thing about it is that he stayed.

That builds up Columbus.

That was my personal goal too.

I could move, but I choose not to because the idea of building up Columbus.

We end up calling the mural, "The People's Mural" because of how the community got behind it.

The process for the "The People's Mural" was to show Hanif as a mosaic.

A reason I wanted to really inject a lot of color in it, has More to do with the quote "There is something about setting eyes on the people who hold you up instead of simply imagining them" the idea of this is where The characters in the background, and these are people that are in the community too.

I put them all in black and white, and I put hanif in color because we realize as artists that were like isolated.

In the sense we think were isolated, and it's actually not the case.

We actually have people who support us, and that care, but just going through that process you get kind of lost and it gets pretty exhausting.

So it has a lot of personal meaning, when I designed this.

So in the summer of 2020, I moved into Aminah Robinson's home through the Columbus Museum of Art.

Now what I served as was as the manager, but there's kind of like a duality to it.

Which was that Aminah Robinson was my mentor.

I met Aminah Robinson when I started at the Columbus Museum of Art in May Of 2001.

So, it had like a higher purpose for me.

It's a curated museum space so your essentially inside Aminah Robinson.

The energy is there.

It was probably the least art productive I was, but the most healing process I've had.

I was able to slow down, and actually relax, you know?

Because of the residency not having to worry about you know the finances and stuff like that.

It's the only space where I can like really like fly.

Where I can just like do whatever I want.

You know, it's like a healing space I would say.

The one thing Aminah said to me that still resonates with me today is, "keep drawing, don't stop drawing" and at the time I'm like "pshh don't tell me that, I draw all the time."

Like that's absurd I'll never stop drawing, but then what happens is that life happens.

Life occurs and then you get older and drawing becomes harder.

So that message just like "keep drawing" has more importance to me now, than when she told me that when I was twenty-two years old, you know?

I mean, but that's just like a master teacher, right?

So, yes that is pretty cool.

OPENING DOORS >> DCB: Since 1990, Hector Castellanos Lara has made a tremendous impact on the arts community of Northeast Ohio.

From his work on Parade the Circle and Chalk Festival in Cleveland's University Circle to his beloved Dia de Muertos celebrations in the Gordon Square Arts District, Castellanos loves to share his Latino heritage.

>> DCB: Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1954.

Hector Castellanos Lara is the son of a bohemian artist and a young entrepreneur.

>> Hector: My mom was a designer for newborns' clothing.

Her name was Marta Reyna Lara.

I remember my mom coming home with materials in the evenings and cutting and measuring everything.

There was a lot of sewing with the embroidering with beautiful designs.

It's in my genes for sure.

I cannot deny it.

>> DCB: His artist, father Gustavo Castellanos, was a free spirit who died young.

At his mother's bidding.

Hector entered the School of Medicine at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala.

But this was the 1970s, and his country's political situation was dangerous.

>> Hector: In 1974 I was in my first year in school of medicine.

Those days there were unstable situation with the students and the government also because there were some political issues that were so critical and many of my friends were disappearing.

>> DCB: Castellanos Lara's mother and younger brother had already escaped to New York City.

>> Hector: Because the situation was so unstable my mom decided to bring me here to the United States.

She decide to get my papers done.

She was already a resident here in those days.

So I came to the United States, New York, in 1977 when I was 22.

So that's where I lived for the first 12 years.

>> DCB: Castellanos Lara's medical studies did not transfer to the U.S., so he followed in his mother's footsteps in clothing design, working for an American footwear business in the 1980s.

>> Hector: By the third year, they knew that I know how to design, to draw and take photographs.

So they hired me to another department to do just that.

So that opened the door for another level into the artistic field.

>> DCB: By then, he had married and his wife Liz had family in Northeast Ohio.

>> Hector: And they told us it would be nice if we can move to Cleveland because, you know, it's more quiet city, very affordable housing.

If you're raising children, you know, you have better opportunity.

We decided to come in 1990.

>> DCB: It was in Cleveland where his artistic life began in earnest.

One of his earlier exhibits hearkened back to his beloved Guatemala.

>> Hector: People always asking me why I don't make a scene from Guatemala.

Guatemala is one of the most important art that is very easy to recognize because the Mayan population, they dress with these beautiful dresses representing different local areas where they live.

All the ideas that I have in my paintings come from my mind, you know, from my head.

I usually don't go and take photographs or see the scene and draw it or sketch it.

No, I just sit in front of the paper or canvas and I start putting together what I remember.

You know, in this case, people from the market, people with sombreros or people taking a good rest in a sidewalk.

Those scenes are part of the daily life in Guatemala.

>> DCB: In the late nineties, a chance meeting with the Cleveland Museum of Art's Robin Van Lear led Castellanos Lara to the pageant of a lifetime, CMA's Parade the Circle.

>> Hector: I have been part of the family working for almost 22 years with Parade the Circle preparing floats, making giant puppets, also training school kids, teenagers to adults and the Cleveland Public Library also, I did it for many years.

So much fun and so much creativity every year.

Robin Van Lear has these great events like Party the Circle, she has the Chalk Festival.

So that was another invitation directly to me.

And I say, Yeah, I would try these new media.

Since then, I haven't stopped.

>> DCB: Latino artist Salvador Gonzalez invited Castellanos Lara to help him create a new festival for Northeast Ohio in 2005.

Dia de Muertos at the Saint Josephat Arts Hall on East 33rd Street.

Gonzalez retired two years later, leaving the festival in Castellanos Lara's hands.

>> Hector: In 2008 we started here on the West Side, Cleveland Public Theatre.

Raymond Bobgan was so excited about it.

Matt Zone, the councilman from Detroit Shoreway also.

And we started doing face painting.

In the beginning we thought it's going to be mostly children, you know, and teenagers.

But no, there were adults coming and some grandpas, people from all colors.

They are honoring our loved ones.

It goes to everybody.

You know, it's not just one country, you know, and even they have different customs or ways to celebrate.

And in one way or another, we sympathize.

We remember them at least once a year is something very good.

You know, it's something that will be very positive for the new generations because we can tell our kids about who was grandpa, who was the uncle who passed away 20 years ago, you know, so that stay in their memories and they will continue and pass it on to another generation.

That's why it's so important to keep this festival alive.

>> DCB: Arts education is a big part of his career as he works with area schools on projects like traditional sawdust carpets for the Holy Week of Easter.

His most recent activity is at the Art House in Cleveland's Brooklyn Center neighborhood, working with young immigrants currently living in Akron and Canton.

Castellanos later christened it The Gateway Project.

>> Hector: The idea was to welcome the refugees.

Welcome, everybody.

Immigrants to go through this installation.

And we're going to have some wind chimes made out of bamboo materials.

Like you can see there is no walls, so you can come to different directions inside.

And that was the main idea.

You know, we don't need walls, you know, so we just need like of a fun part of this installation.

They can see new elements.

They can feel people like happy and welcome and gathering at the same time.

>> DCB: During his three decades living in northeast Ohio, Castellanos Lara has witnessed incredible growth in the Latino arts community.

>> Hector: One of the main things for me to tell them all the time is like, I don't stay with one discipline in the arts.

You know, if you're a painter that's great, you know, but explore other, other disciplines because that opens the doors in other directions.

I jumped into making massive giant puppets or floats, or I go and make sawdust carpets, or I do chalk art.

I really motivate them to explore more because that give you more chances, more opportunities in life, especially in the arts.

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Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.